Faux Gint-a-Cuffs

As promised, I did a little research and tried to score my box of 2011 Allen & Ginter. I had wanted to officially register for this year’s blog battle, but just didn’t have the hobby funds at the time. So per the norm, I am a day late and a dollar short. The official 1&G product review is still forth coming, but here is my mock Gint-a-Cuffs breakdown awhile. And note, since I am not an official contestant this year, I’m not doing a pack-by-pack and I’m not showing every card that scores points. You can see scans of some of them in that forth coming review. These scores may also not be 100% accurate, but I tried to be as true to the rules as possible and penalized myself where necessary. For instance, I did pull a Chuck Woolery, but due to knowing I wasn’t doing a pack-by-pack review, I didn’t note until after the fact that his point bonus was contingent on who was in his pack, so no points for my misstep. For the record, my favorite team is the Pirates and favorite player is Neil Walker. Now, the results:

One adjustment that needs to be made is for my favorite player. I added +4 for Neil Walker, which I believe plays by the rules. However, if I had registered on time, everyone else also would have been given +2 for Neil being on the Favorite Player list. So instead of figuring out everyone who pulled Neil and adjust their scores, I will just assume all participants pulled his card and thus the net affect would be to reduce my score by -2.

FINAL RESULT: 212 POINTS

As of right now, that would put me square in a tie with Night Owl for third place. Fortunately for Mr. Owl, I am not eligble. Unfortunately for everyone, I am pretty sure I will be participating should there be a Gint-a-Cuffs IV. I was obviously happy to pull my favorite player, and I was surprised at some of the players not on the list (Chase Utley? Albert Pujols? Really?). I can also definitely see the value in having a favorite team such as the Phillies though: way more chances at bonus team points due to team popularity and representation in the overall checklist. I pulled a whopping 6 Pirates, and one was a duplicate.

I must say, I have a new appreciation for everyone who participates. Breaking an entire box and scoring every card was enough work for me. I can only imagine how much more effort and time it would take to report on a pack-by-pack basis and show a scan of every scoring card (every card listed above, without being able to group total like I did for the inserts).

This certainly was a lot of fun though. The official 1&G box break product review will definitely have an entertainment factor built into the overall value portion.